Preaching That Hits Home

Introduction

There’s a message true and glad for the sinful and the sad. Bring it up, bring it up. It will give them courageous. It will help them to be true. Bring it up. Bring it up. Ring up the work or land and see far from Jesus men.

Tell the world of safety grace. Make it known in every place.

For Jehovah’s Mighty Sun bring it out, bring it up, bring up or let’s see till far from Jesus that may bring to all the lost reners do a very capable job, but our singing of late has just been really good, and I think that’s probably because of the number of voices involved. And we have such a good number at each assembly, and all these voices blending together in this auditorium, I just find it all the more encouraging. And we’ll hope that continues until there’s just no more space here. And then we’ll have to do something about that, I guess. Good prayers can be short but sweet. And that’s what I’ll put Charles’ opening prayer in this evening when he said, help Tony to remember his lesson.

I needed that. You know, that goes back to the old ready recollection line that you often hear. May the preacher have a ready recollection of the things that he studied. And sometimes, you know, I’m more in need of inspiration than recollection. But hopefully, the providential hand of God will be helpful to me tonight as I’m in very much need of that at this time. After I had preached a sermon on Sunday night several years ago, I got a phone call. And this is very rare when I received a phone call like this one when the individual who called said, and I could tell there was a little upset in the voice, you preached that sermon at me.

And this person had gone through a divorce in the past, and I knew a little bit about it, but I didn’t know much about it, and I believe the divorce to be a scriptural one. But for some reason, it was perceived that the message was preached at them. And I said, Well, I certainly wasn’t thinking about you when I preached the message. And so often people have come up to me and not in an upset sort of way, but you know, you preach that right at me. Now, in Steve and Charles’ case, that’s probably true, but just kidding, guys. But a lot of times when people say, You preach that right at me, a lot of times that was the last person I might have thought of when I preached that message.

And it is not something that I do where I think about a certain individual in the congregation, I’m gonna straighten them out with this sermon. That is what has often been called using the pulpit as a whipping post. And I believe that to be a misuse of this opportunity to proclaim the gospel. Things that affect a single individual ought to be addressed privately. You know, in Matthew chapter 18, when Jesus points out the brother who sins, he doesn’t say, if that brother sins, preach on it in the pulpit. It says to go to that person and speak to him alone about that matter. So he didn’t say, if your brother sins against you, preach about it. The preacher, I think, should probably follow the golden rule that he preaches.

As you would have others do to you, so do to them. As you would have others treat you, so treat them. And so a preacher needs to think about what if you were the audience? What if you were the one receiving this message rather than the one giving it? How would you want it to be said? How would you want it to be delivered? And if it addresses a subject where I could use some improvement, that I need to employ myself a little bit more diligently, how would I want that to be said to me? Now, one might preach something that indeed springs from the example of an individual or two, but the motive should not be to single out that individual. But a lot of times, what is affecting one person’s life is affecting other people’s lives.

And a lot of times the things that I preach actually come from my own experiences as a Christian and the things that I deal with and the struggles that I have in regard to following Christ. But getting back to this whole concept of preaching at me, I read an article several years ago by a brother Oldenkamp who simply said to this charge, so what? It’s preached at you, so what? And he said, Since when has it been a bad thing to identify sin in my life? Is the preacher only allowed to convict us when he doesn’t know that we need it? Where is that in the rule book? Would we be happier with sweet little lessons that do not inform, instruct, and convict us regarding God’s desire for us?

And so we might talk about preaching that gets a little close to home. Preaching that hits home.

1. Preaching That We Need

And so I want to talk to you tonight about that kind of preaching, because if you allow me to stand in this pulpit for any length of time beyond now, and hopefully there will be some of that, I might say something, might have already said something that struck a little bit close to home. And how we should respond to that. Let me talk first of all tonight about preaching that we need.

How does that respond? How does that response? How does that work in the days of the minor prophets? The ones we’ve been studying. Zephaniah. You’re saying that about us. Or Habakkuk. You’re saying that about us. Well, he was. He was saying about his people, the nation of Israel that were right for judgment, and it was a message that needed to be declared. And in the book of Amos, if you’ll look over in the book of Amos, because it’s sort of like what we’re studying in Zephaniah, as we’ll see next week. Amos does something interesting here. When he starts in verse 3 of Amos chapter 1, for three transgressions of Damascus, or for four, I will not revoke its punishment. Then he goes on from Damascus to Gaza in verse 6, for three transgressions of Gaza and for four, he’s going to deliver them up to Edom.

And then he says in verse 9 of Amos chapter 1, for three transgressions of Tyre and for four. And then in 11, for Edom, three transgressions of Edom and for four. And then the sons of Ammon. And he’s going through all of this. And this is an approach that Zephaniah is going to use. We’re going to study that next week on Sunday morning, Lord willing, in Zephaniah 2 and 3, same kind of an approach. God is going to judge these nations. And at this point, his people are doing what? Oh yeah, this is great. Absolutely, Damascus deserves it. Edom, oh yeah, let him have it. But then you come to chapter 2, and he says, For three transgressions of Moab, and then in verse 4, for three transgressions of Judah and for four.

See, then it starts to hit home. What about Judah’s transgressions? I will send fire upon Judah and will consume the citadels of Jerusalem, verse 5. And then Israel for three transgressions of Israel and for four. I will not revoke its punishment. And again talks about their judgment as well. You know, it’s easy to say amen when the preaching is directed somewhere else. But what about when it’s directed toward us and the things that we need? Well, how do people respond to Amos? That’s interesting. Go over to chapter 7. There was a priest of Bethel named Amaziah, who comes to Amy, says of Amos, he has conspired against you, King Jeroboam, in the midst of Israel. He says, Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.

You know, we got a problem here with this prophet Amos. Well, did what Amos have to say come true? Of course it did. And Amazziah says to Amos, go away. We don’t want to hear your message. Flee away to the land of Judah and eat bread there and do your prophesying there. No longer prophesy at Bethel. For it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence. By the way, he’s he’s just a farmer anyway. Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I am not a prophet, nor am I a son of a prophet, for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs. But God has given Amos a burden to deliver a prophet, a message for him to speak to Israel. They said the same thing to Isaiah.

Say to the seers, speak no more of the holy one of Israel. Tell to us pleasant things, smooth things. They don’t want to hear about the things that they need spiritually and the things that need to change. Well, how do we do with that? How do we respond to preaching that we need? What about when the preacher challenges us in ways where we need to change or grow? I ran across this a long time ago. The source is Dr. Stephen Stevens. That’s a name, isn’t it? Stephen Stevens. Actions that take courage. And the first that hit the top of his list was, oh, I didn’t give you all that. Courage. Admitting that you are wrong. That’s tough. That’s tough for us to do in the husband and wife relationship.

Sometimes it’s tough when the preacher is saying things that convict to say that I am wrong. Another thing that he said that takes courage is to do right, even if everyone else is not. Also on his list. Actions that take courage. Speaking to someone you don’t know. And let me just say, I’m hearing a lot about the friendliness of this congregation by those who visit. And some of you are very good at speaking to those that you don’t know. And that takes courage. You know, since I’m a preacher, I’m sort of used to that, right? Speaking to people that I don’t know. But I got to tell you, that doesn’t come naturally for me. Now, my parents are here today. My dad, it comes naturally for him.

I’ve always said about my dad, he can talk to a fence post. I’m a little bit more timid and shy when it comes to that to talk to people that I don’t know anything about. But one of the things this group is doing well, and I’m going to tell you, I’m going to demand that it continues, that we continue to greet and be warm to those who visit our assemblies. Sometimes that first impression is so very important. We had some folks here last Sunday who had never been in a service like this before. And they were greeted with that same warmth and kindness. And it meant so much to them. And so some of us perhaps might need to come out of our comfort shell a little.

We were talking at lunch today how that some congregations, everybody comes in and they’ve got four or five people that they need to talk to, they haven’t seen all week, and so they go talk to them or their circle of friends that they always sit by and talk to when services are over, that’s the group they’re going to talk to. There was this practice in Auburn that I wasn’t used to when the final prayer was said, a lot of the people didn’t get up. They just stayed in their seat and would visit with the people around them. And I guess that’s tradition, at least it was for that group, and I guess in other places, and I’m not going to say that’s wrong per se, but if everybody stays in their seats, who’s going to greet the visitors?

And I’ll tell you, in a college town, we had visitors at least five to ten every Lord’s day. And sometimes 15 to 20, and on game nights, where there was a football game the day before, we would have 50 to 100 visitors the next day. Who’s going to greet those folks? Whose responsibility is it? Well, you could say in Auburn, it’s the elders’ responsibility. We didn’t have it. No, the elders are shepherds of this group, this flock. And they have a lot of responsibilities that go with that keep them pretty active on a Lord’s day. How long has it been since you? Who am I talking to? All of us. How long has it been since you greeted someone and struck up a short conversation with someone who was at our assemblies that you had never seen or talked to before.

I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. And you know, you might get in, you may start the thing and you may get all locked up. And when that happens, let me tell you what you do. You just say, Well, it’s great to see you today. You just conclude it, but get out of your comfort zone. More of us need to be that way. Making people feel at home among us. So challenge yourself sometime. Be the person that feels responsible for greeting another. Another thing he said was saying no when people are trying to get you to do something you know you shouldn’t. That takes courage. Telling the truth and accepting the consequences. Well, that sort of goes with what I’m talking about in regard to preaching.

My obligation is to tell the truth and accept the consequences. Living your faith with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, regardless of the cost. So, do we have the courage to respond positively with changes in regard to messages that affect us? How do we do when messages address areas where we need to change a little bit? Well, if somebody says, Well, the sermon was directed at me, understand by responding negatively to that whose company that puts you in. The Pharisees. They often reacted to Jesus’ messages that were spoken at them in Mark chapter 12 and verse 12. After a lengthy parable in regard to the vine growers, it says that they were desiring to seize him, yet they feared the multitude. For they understood that he spoke the parable against them.

And so they left him and went away. They didn’t like what Jesus had to say because they realized that this parable was indicting them. In Luke 16, and I think it’s important to see this verse. You might notice what’s around this verse in Luke 16. You have the parable of the unjust steward in the beginning of the chapter and some applications Jesus makes. And at the end of the chapter, you have another story about money and riches. You have the story of the rich man and Lazarus. And so it sort of bookends this chapter, Luke chapter 16. And notice what’s found right in the middle, Luke’s little commentary for us. Now the Pharisees who were lovers of money were listening to all these things. And they were scoffing at him.

And I think that’s another indication that he realized, they realized that Jesus was exposing what was truly in their hearts, a wrong attitude toward material things. And they were listening to him, it says, and they were scoffing at these things, and the reason why is because the Pharisees were lovers of money.

When the Pharisees have a complaint about his disciples’ transgressing the tradition of the elders, and so Jesus just says, okay, well, why do you transgress the commandment of God? Let’s go a little bit deeper than the traditions of the elders. You transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition. You don’t follow what God says. When he says, Honor your father and mother, and he who speaks evil of mother and father, let him be put to put to death. He says, You invalidate the word of God by your tradition in verse 6. In vain do you worship me, teaching his doctrines the precepts of men? And after this discourse, the disciples come to him in verse 12 and said to him, Do you not know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?

The disciples are watching this and they say, Pharisees are hot. They’re upset. They were offended when you offended the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the days. And that didn’t stop Jesus at all. He just told his disciples, every plant not planted by my heavenly father shall be rooted up. Okay, so let’s have preaching that never offends anybody. Well, if what is being planted is not a plant originating from the heavenly father, you may not offend anybody, but what is planted there will be rooted up. Every plant not planted by my heavenly father shall be rooted up, he says. Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. Well, you preach this message at them, but if they don’t wake up, Jesus says, their blindness is going to cause them to be lost and cause others to be lost who follow them because they both fall into the ditch.

And so, yeah, the message hits home, but it’s because they need it. So we can say, well, let’s not preach any messages that ruffle feathers. But we need to remember that every plant not planted by my heavenly father shall be rooted up. I mentioned Brother Oldenkamp, who went on to say, what should they have done when they realized Jesus had spoken against them? And then he goes on to say, perhaps the our preacher perception has contributed to people’s expectations of the preacher. Should it follow that since we help him pay his bills? And you have, thank you, then we should be exempt from ever being rebuked by God’s word. If being our preacher means that he should never say anything that might upset the employer, then the preacher has lost his purpose.

If you upset certain people, certain people could say, you’re no longer welcome here. And you have a family to support.

2. Do We Possess Ears to Hear?

Preaching that hits home. Do we possess ears to hear? If we have ears to hear, we will make no differentiation between truth and truth that is preached at me, or affects me and my behavior. I want you to look at Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. And listen to those pages turning. What a beautiful sound. In Matthew 19, a lot of times when this text is taught, the focus is on what verse? Verse 9. Verse 9, the exception. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for immorality and marries another woman commits adultery. And so the whole discussion of remarriage begins. Well, that’s not really the main issue of Matthew 19. The main issue of Matthew 19 is the question that the people ask of Jesus.

The Pharisees come to him and say, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause at all? They’re not talking about remarriage, they’re talking about divorce. What Jesus thinks about that. And so that’s why he responds in that famous verse 6, what therefore God is joined together, let no man separate. The answer is no.

And the one exception that we know so well in verse 9, he says in verse 10, the disciples say, if the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it’s better not to marry. I’ve always wanted to know why they said that. Because they what they’re saying is, we get it. We see how strict this teaching is. If it’s like this, well, don’t get married in the first place. If it’s one man and one woman for life and there’s no divorce, except for the one cause of Matthew 19, 9, it’s better for a man not to marry. They get it. But then Jesus responds to them, not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. Now, if you don’t understand what Jesus is saying here, you could make this say something that he doesn’t intend.

Look, if you want to reject this, just go ahead. Only certain people can handle this. And if you’re not one of those people that can handle it, just reject it. I mean, is seriously, is that what Jesus is saying? Who he’d always, oh, I can’t handle that. That’s too tough. I reject that. That’s not what he’s saying. He would say of the Pharisees in Matthew 13, to them it has not been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But you, to you it has been granted. And it’s not the idea that God says, Look, I select you disciples because I like you, and I reject the Pharisees because I don’t like them, and so they can’t know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

No, it’s the kind of people that he’s dealing with. It’s the hearts of the Pharisees that are bad, and that’s why they don’t grasp the message. And the disciples, on the other hand, have humble and submissive hearts. And so to them it has been given. And the same is true of this message in Matthew 19. It’s as if Jesus is saying, if it is your disposition to listen and respond favorably, then do so. But if you do not, then you must live with the consequences of rejecting my teaching. And he says at the end of it in verse 12, he who is able to accept this, let him accept it. You can reject this, but you’ll have to live with the consequences. Or if you’re of a mind to embrace it, if you possess ears to hear.

If any man has ears to hear, let him hear. Doesn’t he say that over and over again in the letters to the seven churches? In Revelation 2 and 3. Do you think he was telling the church at Laodicea, look, if you want to continue going on being lukewarm, that’s okay with me. Or Sardis, if you want to continue having a name that you’re alive, but you’re dead, or Ephesus, you want to go on having left your first love. Look, if you can accept it, fine. If you have ears to hear it. That’s obviously not what that statement means. Because he’s already told the Laodiceans, if you don’t repent, I’m going to spit you out of my mouth. And he’s already challenged those in Sardis and those in Ephesus to repent.

And so here in Matthew 19, Jesus is not saying, look, if this message is too hard for you, then don’t listen to it. But he’s saying, if you’re of a disposition to listen and respond, then do it. And he knew the disciples were of that spirit and were of that disposition. I can only imagine throughout the centuries how many people have responded negatively to preaching and thus aimed their negativity to the preacher himself or the spokesman. As Paul would say, Am I therefore your enemy because I tell you the truth to the churches of Galatia in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 16. And then there’s Jesus. I mean, we already looked at him preaching at the Pharisees. Jesus, though sinless, stood accused by his audiences at times.

He fraternizes with sinners. They would even go so far to say as he is in league with the devil. Can you imagine saying that about the sinless Son of God? He is in league with Beelzebub. He’s in league with the devil. Paul is so often accused of saying one thing and doing something else. A false report was circulated about his preaching in Romans chapter 3 and verse 8. And so preachers know it goes with the territory. That if messages are preached that folks don’t like, sometimes they turn their unhappiness against him. And you know, if you want to find a flaw in a man, okay, they were trying to find flaws in Jesus who had none. It’s not going to be as hard of a task to find a flaw in this messenger.

Or can you imagine people saying, I don’t have to listen to 1 Peter. Because remember when he was involved with his hypocrisy over the Gentiles, and Paul had to withstand him to the face. Had a little cheek in the armor there. I don’t need to listen to 1 and 2 Peter, because Peter wrote that. Or Barnabas, the son of he was also carried away with that hypocrisy we find out in Galatians chapter 2. So nobody has to listen to Barnabas anymore. But remember, there was only one flawless man, but there have been a lot of preachers and a lot of prophets that God has used. We are simply instruments to deliver his message. Knowing the terror of the Lord, Paul says, we persuade men.

And what he says right before that is that we must all stand before the judgment seat of God to receive the things done in our bodies, whether those things be good or bad. And so it’s the preacher’s obligation to say, look, here are the bad things, here are the good things. If you do the bad things, you stand in danger of the judgment. And we need to persuade people about that. So often today, there’s not anything bad, really. Well, there may be some things in the bad category, but they’re really bad things. You mean I’m going to be lost for that kind of behavior. The Bible states many things specifically, like the deeds of the flesh of Galatians chapter 5, those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

3. Messages That Affect Our Behavior in the Home

And so if I see areas where we need to work a little harder, do a little better, challenge ourselves, make sure that all of us are pursuing the likeness of Christ, then sometimes those messages can be a little difficult and a little challenging to listen to. One more point about this. I started with this phrase, preaching that hits home for a reason. Because when we preach the whole council of God, we’ll even have messages that affect our behavior in the home. And as I’ve said so often, that people want to divorce service to God from their behavior in other realms of life. That as long as they’re attending the services and doing the right kinds of things in worship, now some folks don’t care about that’s important.

But doing the right things in work, as long as I’m doing that, the way I act toward my spouse or even my children are on the job, you know, if I keep my speech clean here, and yet on my job I am one word of profanity after another, is that okay? Or if I’m a model of kindness in relation to my brothers and sisters, but always mean and gruff and rough in my home. What is truly my character? You see, this message is not just about setting up worship services in the right way. This is about our character. This is about who we are. Our attitudes. The way we treat others. One another passages are all over the New Testament. Love one another, serve one another.

That’s all over this message. So this is about our character. And not just our character in a church building, but our character in the workplace. How our coworkers perceive us. After all, what does what is the message over and over again? It’s in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s in Philippians chapter 2. In 1 Peter chapter 2, we’re God’s people. We’re to be lights in the world. The way we behave sends a message. And we need to take that responsibility seriously. And I don’t know about you, but sometimes I know I could do better in all of those areas. Don’t ever develop the notion that you have fixed everything that needs fixing. That there is no room left for spiritual growth and no further change that will be required.

I don’t think there’s any of us here that are done growing yet.

Doers of the word and not merely hearers. What do you think about that passage? Doers of the word. That encompasses how much of the New Testament for us? The whole thing. Do you have perfect recall of the whole New Testament? Somebody, nobody’s raising their hand. Scott? If Scott would have raised his hand, I’d have had him get up here and quote the entire New Testament. None of us have perfect recall. I wish I did. Some people think I have a better memory than I really do. I’ve told you before about the brother in Beaumont. He was here, David Kirby, who said, You have a photogenic memory. He meant photographic. But that was a big word for David. And I wish I did have a photographic memory.

I was blessed with a pretty good memory. I’ll give my mom and dad props for that. Somehow in the genetic mix, I was given a pretty good one. But it’s not photogenic either. It’s not photographic. It’s not something you’ll want to take a picture of. I don’t have perfect recall of the New Testament. And the point that I’m making is this we’re called to be doers of the word. And so we need to constantly have our noses in it and our hearts in it. Because we need to be reminded of this message. That we don’t recall perfectly. So that we’ll measure ourselves, that we’ll look into the mirror. And the one who looks and measures himself against the word of God and does it, he shall be blessed.

James says in chapter one. I think sometimes we get tired of the challenge of this message. We reach a certain level, we reach a certain amount of knowledge, and we’ve been to so many Bible classes and heard these stories many times. And we think we’ve somewhat arrived spiritually. And we’re better than most. And we may be. We may have done a more thorough and consistent job of applying this message to our lives than many other people. But do we always respond in every circumstance of life after the example of Jesus? When you look at the recipe of love in 1 Corinthians 13, can you say in every moment of your life you’re always doing that? You think every now and then some selfishness kicks in.

Conclusion

And folks, we’ve not fixed everything yet. We have a ways to go. And with God’s help, as we were talking in Bible class this morning. With God’s help, we will arrive safely on that eternal shore as we stay at the business of molding ourselves after the image of Christ. And it’s a great journey. Challenging, difficult at times, but it’s the ultimate journey with the ultimate people. And if there’s someone in this audience tonight who needs to begin the journey, we’re here to help you to know Christ better, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. What is the height and the breadth and the length and the depth?

And so if we can assist you in obeying the Lord, come now while we stand and sing.

We must bear what we have from round. We receive courage when we pray.

Science while it’s ringing, wearing ringing, coming, providing ringing, clearly, ringing, let us see the while we carry all there is work to do and our spring on the crumb. We have to labor and wait, we must all be true.